Windows half-freezes very shortly after startup

This is Windows XP, which I forgot to put in the topic title.

I did a search and saw nothing exactly like my problem, but if there is and I just missed it, I apologize.

Anyway, almost immediately after starting my computer, I get a notice that ZoneAlarm has encountered an error and needs to close. I find this odd and click the ZoneAlarm icon to open the program. Nothing happens, and after a few minutes of waiting nothing continues to happen. After fiddling around a bit I discover that my computer has nearly completely frozen. I can open any folder that I want, and I can use Windows Picture and Fax Viewer, but the Start menu freezes and any program I try to open doesn't work. On top of that, I can't open Windows Task Manager. After about 20 minutes of waiting in frustration, I hard shutdown my computer.

Now I'm at a loss. I don't know if this was a one time thing(since nothing like it has ever happened in the two years I've owned the computer) or what could have caused it, so I hope you might. I thought the error messages might be noteworthy. I found two in Event Viewer that occured about when my computer froze. One in System, with the error originating from something called "d347prt", and one occuring about a minute later, in Application, with the event occuring in "zlclient.exe". I guess it's possible ZoneAlarm had some bizzare problem and caused my computer to freeze, but googling found nobody else with any problem like that.

My system specs are:

Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
OS Service Pack Service Pack 1
Internet Explorer 6.0.2800.1106 (IE 6.0 SP1)
Computer Name MICHAEL (Michael's Computer)
User Name Mike
Logon Domain MICHAEL

Motherboard
CPU Type AMD Athlon XP, 2133 MHz (8 x 267) 2600+
Motherboard Name ECS L7VMM2 (3 PCI, 1 AGP, 1 CNR, 2 DIMM, Audio, Video)
Motherboard Chipset VIA VT8375 ProSavageDDR KM266
System Memory 480 MB (PC2100 DDR SDRAM)
BIOS Type Award (05/07/03)
Communication Port Communications Port (COM1)
Communication Port ECP Printer Port (LPT1)

Display
Video Adapter S3 Graphics ProSavageDDR (32 MB)
3D Accelerator S3 SuperSavageDDR
Monitor Plug and Play Monitor [NoDB] (MPF3650027442)

Multimedia
Audio Adapter VIA AC'97 Enhanced Audio Controller

Storage
Floppy Drive Floppy disk drive
Disk Drive WDC WD1600JB-00GVA0
Optical Drive Generic DVD-ROM SCSI CdRom Device
Optical Drive SAMSUNG CD-R/RW SW-248F (48x/24x/48x CD-RW)
Optical Drive SAMSUNG DVD-ROM SD-616T (16x/48x DVD-ROM)

Partitions
C: (NTFS) 152625 MB (8993 MB free)

Input
Keyboard Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural PS/2 Keyboard
Mouse PS/2 Compatible Mouse
Game Controller Microsoft PC-joystick driver

Network
Primary IP Address 192.168.1.47
Primary MAC Address 00-0A-E6-B9-43-69
Network Adapter Realtek RTL8139 Family PCI Fast Ethernet NIC (192.168.1.47)
Modem Conexant SoftK56 Modem(M)

Peripherals
Printer Auto HP DeskJet 930C/932C/935C on RUSS
Printer Auto HP LaserJet 6L on RYNOL
Printer Lexmark Z700-P700 Series (Copy 1)
Printer Lexmark Z700-P700 Series
Printer Microsoft Office Document Image Writer
USB Device USB Human Interface Device
USB Device USB Printing Support

Problems & Suggestions
Problem Disk free space is only 6% on drive C:.

I think I've given everything, but if you need more information, please ask. Thank you very much for your time.

 

restart it a few times and see if you get the same problem. You might need to start it in safe mode and either disable zonealarm or uninstall it completely. If you need any elaboration, just ask. I'm in class and am being brief. I suggest uninstalling and reinstalling zonealarm if your problem persists after a few restarts.

 

What do you mean by "you might need to restart it in Safe Mode"? I'm not very good with computers, so I don't know what the advantage to starting it in Safe mode would be as far as detecting the problem is concerned.

Anyway, I restarted it five times in normal mode with no problems. That might be good, but I'm more inclined to be worried that it's just an intermittent problem. Would there be some other way to check for what might be the root cause besides restarting and hoping to catch the problem?